The Wrong Trousers
| runtime = 30 minutes (NTSC) 29 minutes (PAL) | country = United Kingdom | language = English | budget = £650,000 }}The Wrong Trousers is a 1993 British stop-motion animated short film directed by Nick Park at Aardman Animations, featuring his characters Wallace and Gromit. It is the second film featuring the eccentric inventor Wallace (voiced by Peter Sallis) and his dog Gromit, following A Grand Day Out (1989).'' In the film, a sinister penguin uses Wallace and Gromit's robotic "Techno Trousers" to steal a diamond. ''The Wrong Trousers premiered in the United States on 17 December 1993, and the United Kingdom on 26 December 1993. It was commercially successful, and won the 1993 Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. It also inspired a charity fundraising day, known as "Wrong Trousers Day", one of several events. The short was followed by two sequels, A Close Shave, released in December 1995, and A Matter of Loaf and Death released in December 2008. Plot To pay off debts, Wallace lets the spare bedroom to a penguin, who befriends Wallace and drives Gromit from the house. The penguin takes an interest in Wallace's new "techno trousers", which can walk on walls and ceilings, and secretly rewires them for radio control. Gromit realises that the penguin is a wanted criminal, who disguises himself as a chicken, Feathers McGraw. Feathers forces Wallace into the techno trousers and sends him on a test run through town. Later, Gromit spies on Feathers as he takes measurements of the city museum, and discovers Feathers' plans to steal a diamond from the museum. While Wallace sleeps, Feathers marches him to the museum and uses the trousers to infiltrate the building. He uses a remotely operated crane claw, contained in a helmet he has made Wallace wear, to capture the diamond, but accidentally trips the alarm. As Wallace wakes up, Feathers marches him back to the house and traps him and Gromit in a wardrobe at gunpoint. Gromit rewires the trousers to break open the wardrobe. He and Wallace chase Feathers aboard their model train set. Wallace disarms Feathers and frees himself from the trousers. After Feathers' train collides with the trousers, Gromit captures him in a milk bottle. The police imprison him in the city zoo. Wallace and Gromit pay their debts with the reward money while the techno trousers walk off into the sunset. Cast *Peter Sallis as Wallace Reception The Wrong Trousers was voted as the eighteenth best British television show by the British Film Institute. It has a unanimously positive score on Rotten Tomatoes, with 24 reviews, 100% positive and an average score of 9.1/10. The critical consensus reads, "An endearing and meticulous showcase of stop-motion animation, The Wrong Trousers also happens to be laugh-out-loud funny." The film was awarded the Grand Prix at the Tampere Film Festival, and the Grand Prix at the World Festival of Animated film – Animafest Zagreb in 1994. The Wrong Trousers won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. See also * List of films featuring powered exoskeletons * List of films with a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes References External links * * Category:1993 animated films Category:1993 films Category:1990s animated short films Category:Films directed by Nick Park Category:1990s comedy films Category:Aardman Animations short films Category:Animated comedy films Category:Animated films about penguins Category:BBC Television programmes Category:Best Animated Short Academy Award winners Category:British animated short films Category:Clay animation films Category:Films featuring anthropomorphic characters Category:Films with screenplays by Bob Baker Category:Films with screenplays by Nick Park Category:Stop-motion animated short films Category:Wallace and Gromit films Category:Animated films about animals Category:Three-handers Category:1993 short films Category:1990s stop-motion animated films Category:Warner Bros. Family Entertainment films